at folks news.com. our coverage continues on the fox news channel with "fox and friends" with the latest on the storm and its recovery. "fox and friends" starts right now. >> gretchen: good morning, everyone . it is wednesday october 31st. i am. gretchen carlson . some neighbors are under water and others are wiped out with heros and children among the dead. word of recovery taking more than a year. >> steve: while the coast is drying out folks are digging out with the snow covering the roads. it is a white out down south. >> brian: president obama set to tour the damage.

the president's request to visit new york city denied. "fox and friends" starts right now. ♪ >> gretchen: good morning, we start with an extreme weather alert. devastation sandy has left behind unimaginable and cities must begin the grueling recovery . the super storm killed 55 men, women and children and first responders. estimates of the physical damage are at 20 billion dollars and the recover will have to wait. eight million people are in the dark and aren't expected to get power back for weeks. hardest hit is new jersey, new york and pennsylvania. meanwhile, the president of the united states asked mayor bloomburg, i would like to take a look at all of the

damage and mayor bloomburg had a press conference and said we are flattered by the fact that the president of the united states would like to come and visit us, but not right now and we are really busy and the first responders need to pay to exeem put things back in order. it would be great if the president goes to new jersey and the president will tour the devastation with the chief executive new jersey chris christy. >> gretchen: when the president comes the city is shut down . the city can't have security detail and anything like that at all. but he will go to new jersey which is your home eric. >> i am trying to figure out why. i get it he wants to see the damage. please come can go and sign the check to help fema to sign

over the money . chris christie was on saying that we have gotten acess to the funs we are going to need. i am not sure what touring the sight. >> steve: it is smart politics for the president. there is chris christie helping the people on the jersey shore. it is essentially politically if you talk about it he is coopting one of rom romm's visible surrogate and it is good for chris christie his state will go for barack obama example it is a win, win as the campaign starts today. chris christie was out and shook a lot of hand and a lot of people were waiting to see him there and there he was. watch this. >> you have to see the people that are affected by this. they need to see us. me, and the mayor and others

who are going to be the folks to lead them back and rebuild this. there is no retreating from this. we'll assess the damage and rebuild. that's the way it is in new jersey. chris christy said the damage to the injuriesy shore was unspeakable. >> gretchen: in the meantime peter doocy has covered the rohobus beach in delaware. >> nationally 51 people have been kill would by sandy, including children and police officers. this morning, millions of americans are still in the dark. they don't have lights or heat which is going to be a problem on a very chilly final day of october. we learned yesterday.

it will be in the first week of november before the new york city subway system. 468 station and 68 plus miles of track can reopen. they have been closed since before the storm. jfk airport will possibly open up. we don't know when la guardia or newark airport will open up back for business. airport in boston started slowly the take off and landings. but the tuesday total of cancellation. 18,000 in one day . a lot of folks lost their homes including more than 100 in a fire in breezy point, queens. the damage could top 20 billion and 20 or 30 billion in lost business. those numbers are huge that experts are hoping could be and might be off set by the

cost of a repair and rebuilding. back to you in new york. >> thank you, peter. we told you about atlantic city, but just south of there. parts of ocean city, new jersey boardwalk also swept away . sandy swept away much of the town. we are joined where clean up is under way, stephanie. >> it is bad here in ocean city . the bay on one side and ocean on the other. it looks like i am standing on the beach but we are on the fifth street acess point to the boardwalk. to one side of me there is houses and there is sand coming right up to their front steps it is dramatec here. we hadn't seen sand like this in sometime, all the way down to almost the first city

blockk and a municipal parking lot. it looks like a beach and lagoon. there is water in there still and unlike sea side heights, we have our ferris wheel up here and things are drying out. yesterday it was looking bad. going to the aerial shots. the bay met the ocean over ocean city. it was entirely flooded with the islands looking like nothing but water with tiny little boat houses. those were people's homes that people worked their whole lives to buy a home in ocean city on the beach. they are covered with water and the governor is very clearr about why he doesn't want people here today. although it was not as bad as yesterday. there is a lot of debris in the road and pieces of boardwalk and nails and things

from people's front porches that have blown off. the mayor of ocean city said there were gas leaks after homes were pushed off of the foundation. sandy earned her name here in ocean city . back to you guys. >> steve: thank you for the live report. one of the icons was casino pier. we have a before and after. there is the heyday. screen left and right and the roller coaster is in the atlantic ocean . >> brian: they are saying 20 billion dollars. there are very expensive homes on the coastline. that number could go up higher than that. >> steve: you shld know. you got a beach house. >> we don't know, steve. we had one there. who knows. it is heart breaking. >> gretchen: talking about

something that kids might be looking forward to if there is something to look forward to which would be halloween. many people it is not top and miped in the regions . but the kids are thinking about it. and governor chris christie in new jersey made the announcement for new jersey residents. other states and towns . new york city halloween parade cancelled for the 1st time. my street is not safe with no power and lines and trees down everywhere. how many other people are facing the situation . i think we'll go from one, two, 3, four, homes and give them cand yep let them feel at least some of the joys they might have normally had on halloween. >> it is not like the government will sign an executive order to move it to this weekend.

he joked that it might be fun to recalifornia it for election day. >> brian: last year was cancelled because of the ice storm and brought a lot of power and lights down. it is important to know that two million people are without power and it is dangerous driving conditions. you don't want them to the streets. >> steve: from wind and rain to snow. blizzard continues to several states including west virginia virge and north carolina . think it is too early to get the ice scraper out. this picture from kentucky. maria molina. it went from a hurricane to a brrrocane. it produced blizzard conditions in many states not only kentucky, but west virginia, maryland and north carolina and virginia and tennessee. one place in each state

recordding 20 inches of snow. two feet in virginia and maryland. incredible to see these conditions. we had blizzard warnings in affect. they have been allowed to expire. we are seeing it come down in states of west virginia and north carolina again. it is incredible. the rainfall was a big concern. that is letting up and seeing heavier batches of it pushing through eastern main. this is a closer shost west virge virge and wind dying down in the northeast. and they are expected in the northeast and great lakes are still windy out there and wind gusts 30 miles per hour and expect to see the wave heights in the morning hours across lake michigan. >> when was the last time we had to worry about the wind chill with the hurricane.

>> gretchen: lots of people have different exhappenation . he was caught on camera and in the days in benghazi and now presentt at the attack using images recorded while the attack happened. john bolton outraged that the united states is not allowed to speak with him yet. >> it is outragous beyond belief that the tunisian government will not allow us to have acess. i don't know what the supply of foreign aid going into tunisia is now, i would look at a substantial reduction if they don't cooperate. >> gretchen: the state department hasn't said why it hasn't gotten acess to the suspect. justice in the murder of briantery. the suspect pled guilty to first-degree murder. he admitted to being part of the group the u.s..

they'll not seek the death penalty. the suspect said the weapons were hidep for them on the u.s. side of the border much two of the weapons were linked to the botched fast and furious operation. nine men in florida busted for betting on pee wee football. it involved coaches with extensive criminal records. the parents were spotted exchanging money. some wagers were as much as $100,000. >> on pee wee football. >> gretchen: everybody knows his name. ♪ george wince was hospitalized after having chest pace. he was supposed to be in the production of odd couple. >> steve: he is a friend of

the show. our best to him and his family. hurricane sandy knocks a house off of the map. take a look at the images of sandy. ork? you just he to eat it as part of your heart healthy diet. step 1. eat the soup. all those veggies and beans, that's what may help lower your cholesterol and -- well that's easy [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. till you finish your vegetables. [ clock ticking ] [ male announcer ] there's a better way... v8 v-fusion. vegetable nutrition they need, fruit taste they love. could've had a v8. or...try kids boxes!

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>> gretchen: welcome back, everyone. this used to be 111 homes and now smouldering rubble. entire neighborhood wiped out in hurricane sandy. rick rickk high winds sparked the fires and wiping out homes and memories to dozeps of families who called the beach front home. chairman mike long had one of those homes. thanks for joining us mike. we talked about on the couch do we know how the fire started yet? >> i don't think it is conclusive but it appears it

may have been from a transformer that smarked and hit a roof and the winds were so devastating that is rap edly spread from house to house and then firefighters arrived who were great. it was impossible for them to wade through the water and fight the fire at the same time. many, many homes would have been destroyed if not for the new york city firefighters. but it almostt an impossible task between the wind and the floods. three or four or five feet of water they were wading in to try to put out the fire. >> gretchen: i know your home burned to the ground but your family is save. >> the important part my family is safe.

i have a number of children that lived there and another son's house burned to the ground and three other children their houses were severe water damage. it is not only the loss of the 111 homes that burned to the ground, it is the home knocked off their foundations by the flooding and current. homes that took in water up to the first floor. they are in ill repair. it is a great community of people. a lot of people who lost their homes in 9/11. >> gretchen: when you see this picture now. i don't know if you have seen the pictures of devastation, what do you make of the

befores and offers. >> it was a beautiful quiet community and barbecues on the weekend and going to the beach in the summer time and after it, it looks like the bomb went through the community and scraped. and it is mind boggling. we are there 35 years and we had fond memories. >> eric: the amazing and good blessings that no one lost their lives in the are are are homes. >> you are right on target. >> eric: we'll leave it there. thank you. >> gretchen: four americans killed in the benghazi terrorist attack. no worries from the white house. would the media be silent if the president was a

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>> 24 minutes after the top of the hour. couple of headlines. back to business on the market today. market shut down for two days, largest storm outage. and new york stock exchange running on back up power. no, this is not the atlantic ocean. that is lake miigan in chicago. waves reaching heights of 20 feet during the storm, steve. >> >> steve: if a republican were in the white house in the terrorist attack on benghazi

seven weeks ago would the media accept answers like in. >> the election has nothing to do with four brave americans getting killed. these folks who served under me that i had sent to very dangerous places. no one wants to find out more what happened than i do. we want to get it right. >> steve: which means it takes a long time. would the bush administration get a pass until after the election was over. good morning to you, jonah. >> good morning. >> steve: where is the media frenzy on libya? aside from fox news which portrays it as a big story as it is. where is everybody else? >> they are mia. to ask the question what if it would be bush? it gets so frustrating and in

the valny plame story and no one died and nothing story. you had reporters camped out on white house staffers lawns demanding answers every single day . yet, cindy sheehan new york columnist said moral authority was absolute. charles woods whose son died. tyrone died, he can't get worris and he is treated a a periphal. they cover with no great sense of urgency and not big of deal. >> steve: it is not like this is, an october surprise. this is news. when you look at the navy seals when they took out osama bin laden back on may 1st of last year. we got leaks from the white

house within 7 minutes that it was happening and now 7 weeks later, nothing. >> it is not like mitt romney coordinated with militias to attack the ambassador. these are real developments that happened and the white house's answers are bizarre. early on in this, the administration said that the two navy seals were there as the ambassador's personal protection which is flatly untrue. there are so any questions and yet the media treats it as if it is an inconvenient story to talk about before the election and it is illegitimate. >> steve: you will not see this story on the washington post. but there is a writer that said the attack on the u.s. consulate is a political football with all of the

grandstand misinformation but fox news raised questions about the attack that deserve a clear answer from the obama administration. that should be on the front page and not back in the opinion section. >> yeah, jennifer griffin, i never heard anything say anything disparging. she stand by her sources and says what she says . even if outlets do have reasons to doubt her, it should be reported on and try to debunk. but they want to ignore the whole story. it is it a biwrar and outrageous double standard and i think that david ignacious should be applauded. but he doesn't add up to a feeding frenzy. and the past feeding frenzies were wrong. they yust want the story to go away . with less than a week before the election. policy is don't ask, don't

tell. that is the policy of the press and the president of the united states regarding benghazi. jonah, thank you. >> thanks for having me. >> steve: who said that america's border fence did not work. it stopped these guys from getting into arizona and why police need to talk to actor gene hackman this morning. [ male announcer ] choosing a winds 8 device with help from your friend.

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>> gretchen: you are looking at images of the jersey shore. sand and sea washed over the coastal town. many in dark but many saying they will rebuild. jennifer joining us from new jersey. how are people coping there this morning? >> this is typically a fishing paradise. but it is different scenario unfolding. we are told they asked people door to door to leave. a lot of people didn't comply

. the houses tell the story about what happened. the force of the water coming off of the delaware bay was so strong there was no place to go. debris litters the ground here. houses were washed off their foundation and one home here the back is gone . looks like something exploded inside of it. we have light poll it is down and it is a mess here. fire crews had to use front loader to get back in the community to check on the people who would not evacuate and there was four feet of water in the area. these scenes are repeat up and down the new jersey coastline today and the types of things that the president will see as he tours the area with governor christy later today. certainly, millions remain without power. two million people remain without power. and eep though the country will celebrate halloween, governor christie said it is

not safe for children to go door to door . later in the week he will sign an executive order rescheduling the holiday. back to you. >> gretchen: thank you very much. campaigning resumes today. we told you that the president will go to new jersey. he asked to come to new york and mayor bloom bloomm said that was too much stress. he's on the way to new jersey . mitt romney will be down in florida and we don't know if he requested to come tiers jers but he will be campaigning in florida. >> steve: he didn't go up on the stage and he stood on a box and talked about praying for people in the disasters. he has three events down in florida and he will appear with jeb bush and connie mack and marco rubio . will be in tampa and miami and

jacksonville and the polls show mitt romney needs momentum. he needs to motivate people to show up. >> eric: the polls were trenteding from mitt romney and it was a close race and then mitt romney was five or seven . the momentum on romney's side with women. and there is a huge gap within single women and women in general . he closed that before the storm. the storm put a freeze on all of those things and restarting the campaign it is it interesting to see if they start out in the same point and continue that and something change would. >> gretchen: the questions for the candidates and fema, the federal emergency management agency. they are facing 878 million in cuts because of sequestration and congress couldn't get act together to figure out how to reduce the deficit.

automatic cuts went in affect . governor romney got a lot of questions about fema because he said in the past he would cut some aspects of fem a. dana weighed in on this. >> remember, governor mitt romney was governor of massachusetts and knows how the federal and state relationship works. there is no one in washington who could look at the program and say there couldn't be improvements and see how we can get money to the people faster. in fact, president obama himself said that today. he instructed the federal government no red tape or bureaucracy. it is preposterous to try to hang that on mitt romney. one of the first things he said. people who donated to his campaign. we don't need your resoues at this moment. give to the red cross or check on your neighbors . where do they start being

political. on saturday the federal government put out a statement about the storm, it uses campaign language lean forward which happens to be a competitive net word. i could not believe that someone in the white house office approved a message like this. >> steve: the president used those words when he appeared in the red cross yesterday. it would be interesting when he is tagging on whether members of the press corp will be with him. i wonder if he will worry questions that asked about lib yampt don't bet on it. what is causing the big storm that has wreaked such devastation on the northeast. according to al gore, the guy behoinvented the internet went on his personal web page said it is the climate crise yis

global warming. >> eric: he has to get back in the lime light. he hasn't been. and the only thing we talked about al gore in the past couple of months is his fledging network is up for sale and he needs to raisemoneye proof? global warming claims have been debunked time and time again. it is weather. weather changes and things happen. it has nothing to do with global warming. >> steve: on the program a couple of days ago, a meteorologist who comes from a family of meteorologist. he said go back and lookalt 1950s. they had gigantic storms in the 1950s. there is eat big cycles of weather. >> gretchen: al gore's flip side said it is a disturbing sign of things to come. global warming and storms are more powerful and that is his

analysis. one thing that is true from governor cuomo in new york. we have old systems here and that is not a good combinadings . governor cuomo that is true. 108 year old subway system . who knows. >> eric: he call would it early. a full 36 hours before the storm hit. he said they are going to wind down subway service. fantastic. and also steve, you should know it better than anyone on the couch. the predictant of the weather. giving us a lot of forewarning. >> steve: that's right. and more on this later. we have other headlines. imagine the border patrol's reaction when they came across this. two would be smug lerse.

their jeep on the fence. it didn't get far. the suspectsed back to mexico. >> eric: i want the car with me? amazing he made it out of the water alive. a shark taking a bite out of the surfboard and man was pulled under. this is the latest in a string of shark attacks. >> gretchen: was it self defense or all out assault. gene hackman slapped a homeless man. he attacked the actor and the man called police that the hackman beat him up. cops said he acted in self defense and did not arrest him. >> steve: in new jersey, a beach goer spotted a deer that was stuck in the ocean and

couldn't get back on the beach because of the barriers of rocks. the guy still went to the water and helped him out. excellent. >> gretchen: coming up. wrath of hurricane sandy not limited to new york and new jersey shores, what will she do to massachusetts? we'll take you there live after the break. >> the president promised federal help but should the feds be involved at all. do the governors need the president and waington to intervene. charles is next.

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the trucks are going farther. the new 2013 ram 1500. ♪ with the best-in-class fuel economy. engineered to move heaven and earth. ♪ guts. glory. ram. >> gretchen: fox news alert. looking at live pictures in new jersey, 10 homes are on fire and the flames are spreading. you can see flames are coming out of the sand at this point. it is believed that a gas fire of some sort may be to blame under the ground.

that is not yet confirmed. this is in new jersey. 10 homes may be on fire post storm. we'll keep you updated. >> it looks leak a gas main there. mother nature slams the state of massachusetts. they managed to escape the full fury of sandy. they are live in massachusetts with the latest. good morning, katherine. >> good morning, we are here in weirham. this is one of the last communities you cross into before you go to the cape. residents said they made it through hurricane sandy unscathed. but look at this here behind me. yellow caution tape and power lines are draped across the street and falling on to the pavement. this is the scene in various

spot fist warham. there was a sudden and severe storm that came through here on tuesday night and cause water and tree limbs to fall on homes and streets and power lines. in fact 1715 customers without power. first it was thought it was a sandy related thunderstorm that came through here. but the meteorologist spoke with the national meteorologist and said it is it a result of a microburst. they are not sure but detected weak rotation before the storm moved through warham on tuesday night. they are investigating the possibility of a microburst. residents told me it was unlike any this little theng that move in here. it was a sheet of rain, intense rain and that something passed right over their home and seemed to start in this area.

anything on this side of the town is fine and streets over here that see this type of damage. we are learning about possibly a microburst or sandy related. that is the latest here in massachusetts. back to you guys. >> steve: what ever it was caused damage. eric over to you and charles. >> eric: president obama will tour devastated areas of new jersey and promised fast help from the federal government and no red tape. should the federal government be involve would in the first place. the new york times thinks so without big government there would be no federal aid and every state would bear the billions of damages. is that so joining me is charles. >> no, that was focused in a response in washington d.c.

that has a view of the world and the states . i heard you talk about cuomo and the superb job and same thing with chris christy. no one in washington d.c. knows new jersey like chris christ yeno one in washington d.c. knows new york state like governor cuomo. the way it is set up now. these states are to ask for money and puhow did the monep getet money in the first place. new jersey sent 10,000 to washington percapita. you build giant centers in washington d.c. and get the money and horde it. and think of how great these leaders responded imagine if they had the money rather than waiting for the government. >> eric: listen to president obama at the red cross. >> my message to the federal

government. no bureaucracy can red tape and get resources as fast and hard as possible and for the duration. >> eric: your thoughts. >> he made my point. there should not be bureaucracy can red tape. fema should be maybe for the poorer states. but keep the money local and not the man and have a check list. let the governors take control. >> eric: governors know what is best for their state. thank you,charles. you will be on varney. >> i will host from nine-10. and neal after that. markets are reopening. >> eric: democrats claimed republicans waged a war on women. >> you want to talk about war in women. walking my shows down in kabul. >> she joins us next.

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>> gretchen: democrats are quick to accuse republicans for a war on women . but they should think twice. >> you want to talk about a war on women. walking down my shoes in cabull and rihad. a woman has to be covered up or they are stoned or honor killed if they are raped and they can't drive or travel without a permission of a male women. >> that was a retired u.s. air force colonel running to arizona district. that is a powerful response to the war on women doctrine that the democrats are talking about. you are the first female to

command a fighter squad ron and first woman to fly in combat in united states history, correct? >> i had those opportunities. >> gretchen: what is the message to your voters in tucson about the war on women that you are accused of waging? >> this is across the country, partisan attacks are diversions to what is really going on women in my district. they are looking for jobbings. four million women are out of the work force in the last four years. and looking for affordable health care and get education for their kids . and i had to put me down on it they are using partisan attacks and i draw the line. >> gretchen: what was the response and i would be interesting to know how the press covered that when you gave that response in a debate? >> locally there was a little bit of press coverage. it was picked up on the

internet and gone viral in the naption. especially because of the opportunities i had razz a fighter pilot and warrior and commander. you are seeing a real war on women in other places on the world and i have stood up fought for women's rights. i fought against the pentagon policy that made our women wear muslim garb in saudi arabia and standing up for the women in the military. i have fought for equipment and get them back to work and get this count reapp going again. this is what the election is about and not the diversions that try to scare voterss and women. >> gretchen: interesting pointings. martha mcsally's veteran and candidate down in arizona. >> i need your support it is martha mcsally.com. i appreciate all of the support. thanks for letting me on this morning. >> gretchen: we invited her opponent to appear and not

heard back. we are following breaking news. a neighborhood that has flames shooting out of the sand. can you reschedule halloween that is an idea tossed around. ♪

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>> gretchen: good morning, everyone. it's wednesday, october 31. it's halloween. happy halloween. i'm gretchen carlson. thanks for sharing your time with us. people president-elect obama aren't going to be thinking about that today because look at this incredible strength of hurricane -- look at that. look at that! it looks like a movie. unfortunately it's real. a huge tree ripped from its foundation. scenes like that are what's left of entire towns up and down the east coast. live team coverage moments away. >> eric: we're following breaking news. a neighborhood destroyed by sandy, on fire at this hour. the flames shooting right out of the sand. >> steve: president obama set to survey the damage in new jersey later on today. but don't bother crossing the river.

why? because the mayor of new york city told 9 president to not cross the hudson. what's that about? "fox & friends" hour two for a very busy wednesday starts right now. >> gretchen: good morning, everyone. we start with an ex cream -- extreme weather alert. devastation sandy left behind unimaginable. a massive tree uprooted as the super storm hit on long island, new york. now ravaged cities up and down the east coast must begin the grueling recovery, the once in a lifetime super storm, killing as many as 55 people, including kids, women, men, first responders. this morning estimates of the physical damage, $20 billion. that could go up. the recovery will have to wait in some areas.

power outages in some a more than 8 million people in the dark. the hardest hit states, new york, connecticut, pennsylvania. we were telling you about this earlier. this is new jersey. this is not live. but this is a situation there right now, already devastated by the storm in and of itself. this is another beach town now, between seaside heights and point pleasant. ten homes now on fire there. flames spreading. these homes are not occupied. you can see some of the flames are actually coming out of the sand and that's why it's believed it may be gas underneath the ground that somehow exploded and creating these fires now. beach front community that became the scene of destruction trying to pick up the pieces. more than 100 already flooded homes in breezy point, new york, burned to the ground. todd starnes with the latest on that situation. good morning. >> good morning. and extreme devastation is what

happened in breezy point. we understand that what the flood waters did not get, the flames certainly did. we have some really amazing aerial shots to share with you that will give you an idea of how extreme this devastation really is. five complete blocks, five entire blocks devastated by these flames that were picked up by the gusty winds. we understand as many as 100 homes were wiped out, gone. also a church in breezy point, catholic church was destroyed by the flames. the only thing remaining, that statue in front of what was once a church. among those losing their homes, by the way, is mike long. he is the chairman of new york's conservative party. he had a chance to speak with "fox & friends" earlier. here is what he had to say. >> it looks like a bomb went through the community and just

scraped the community, blew it to bits. it just is mind bulging. you can't put your arms around it. >> as bad as it was in breezy point, we have some good news to share with you today. absolutely no one lost their lives. as a matter of fact, one amazing story of survival, a family escaped the flames by put o'clock their children on a surf board and they waded through the storm surge. they took refuge at a neighbor's home of the the good news, at least, everyone is safe. >> steve: all right. thank you very much. here in new york city, according to the police department, 22 souls lost their lives so far with sandy. that could be one of the reasons why yesterday when the mayor of new york city, michael bloomberg, was having a late afternoon press conference, he revealed that apparently president of the united states asked to come to new york city and what the mayor said was we're flattered by the fact that he's interested in what we're up

against, but now is not the time. we're happy that he's going instead to new jersey. the president of the united states at red cross headquarters in the washington, d.c. area. later the president will be teaming up with chris christie across the river in new jersey to survey the damage. >> eric: the numbers that they're throwing around, the estimates of $20 billion, i think that has to go up. that's just for the damage alone. it's not the economic activity associated with the storm. point of reference, hurricane katrina, around $80 billion of damage alone with another $80 billion in economic damage in the aftermath of katrina. so 20 right now for damage in new york, plus another 20, 25 economic activity. i think those numbers will go substantially higher when they really find out. >> steve: plus there are so many houses they haven't been able to get to. the barrier islands south on the jersey shore, people haven't been able to get there because they were essentially washed out. >> gretchen: the interesting thing about politics relating to the storms is what is the right

move for politicians, especially when we're six days away from a monumental presidential election? remember the scathing interpretation that president bush got with regard to hurricane katrina. so what is the right response? the president has to come and has to survey the situation, so what should mitt romney do? he's our -- can you imagine the discussions going on inside these camps about what is the right tone? what looks correct? >> eric: i hate to do this, but i remember in alabama, president obama took, i believe it was four or five days before he got to that -- remember the massive tornadoes. i think 40 or 50 people were killed and 600 injured and billions and billions of dollars. does the president have to show up now? we can barely -- our airports are still closed. is it time for the president or is it a photo op? >> gretchen: i'm just saying this is how it works.

amazing destruction burks six days out -- i'm not saying it's right or wrong. >> eric: i think chris christie is doing a fine job. the man is intense, he's knee deep in it. does he need president obama to take him off the focus? >> steve: and some have suggested that the president is going to go to new jersey. that means a lot of the first responders, rather than digging people out will have to be protecting the president. it's a calculation the republican governor of new jersey has made. go ahead, mr. president. you come on by. yesterday he was down the shore and he said it was devastation that was absolutely unthinkable. the people there in new jersey loved seeing him yesterday. they needed a shoulder to cry on and he was there. >> you have to see the people who are affected by this. they need to see us. they are going to have to be the -- get everybody back. there is no retreating from

this, you know. we will assess the damages and rebuild and that's the way it works in new jersey. you don't back off. [ applause ] (chance of usa). >> steve: we'll rebuild down there. because the president did declare much of the state of new jersey a disaster area, including atlantic, cape may and ocean counties, the federal money is coming in and now it's up to the state to figure out how it spend the money. >> gretchen: let's take a look at some of the devastating pictures. this is going to be a before and after of the casino boardwalk. seaside heights, new jersey. on the left of your screen, you see that was back in the good old days, two days ago before the storm came in with the roller coaster. sitting up there on the boardwalk, and devastation to the right of that. you have to imagine that's just a total loss. >> steve: it has stood there proudly, scaring kids for a century and -- it puts it all into perspective, that it's been

there for 100 years and this was the storm that took it out. the storm also took out halloween. tonight is halloween, but because a lot of neighborhoods in new jersey still have downed power lines, where i live, of the 300,000 customers for orange and rockland, 200,000 don't have power. >> eric: i am very upset about this. >> gretchen: why? >> eric: my snooki costume, i had -- >> gretchen: snooki! >> steve: you can wear it on saturday. >> gretchen: i'll look at it after the show if you want to put it on. >> eric: no, i was just kidding. very important point to make is that with all the power outages, with the lights, streetlights out, you don't want to have kids running crossing streets. >> steve: that's right. that's why governor christie is apparently going to sign some sort of executive order essentially moving halloween from tonight so the kids can celebrate it one day this weekend. probably friday or saturday. >> gretchen: it's not just that state. we've heard nothing in connecticut either. but it's not safe really in new york, connecticut, massachusetts, probably tons of

neighborhoods will be doing the same thing. we have another situation brewing not just the stop, but snow. >> steve: that's right. sandy causing blizzard conditions for the past two days in west virginia. we've been telling you a little bit about it. right now parts of west virginia covered with three feet of snow. about 300,000 people don't have lights where it is freezing. kelly wright was out along the shore a couple of days ago and now he's out in the mountains where it is snowing. he's in elkins, west virginia. kelly? >> steve, good morning to you. gretchen and eric as well. this is beautiful downtown elkins, west virginia. it's my first time being here and i love it already. they have embraced this storm, sandy ripped through here, causing blizzard conditions. literal blizzard that had trucks across the highway. steve, when you come up to this area action it's an hour away from snow shoe, so you have the

mountain region and coming up those elevations of 3,000, 200 feet is very difficult. so on my way here action the crew had arrived here. on my way without four wheel drive, it was treacherous. i saw trucks strewn along the highway, debris, dangling trees over the actual highway that i was riding o. let me show you old glory here. the flag. it's just drenched from the snow and right there this banner over my head says, elkins, artists gather. this is the artistic district of elkins. but it's with snow and so the artist will have a lot of rendering. i'll show you how stalwart they are. that's a deep gully there. they paved the streets here to make sure people can get to and from work. nearby hospital was under generator power and 300,000 people without power, they got a tough job ahead. steve, back to you. >> steve: kelly wright live in

west virginia where i'm sure he was not counting on having his snow suit on one day in october of this year. thank you very much. >> gretchen: the rest of your headlines. justice in the murder of border patrol agent brian terry. manuel rosario pleading guilty to first-degree murder. he admitted being part of a group who entered the u.s. to rob drug smugglers. prosecutors will not seek the death penalty since he decided to plead guilty. he is also making a shock revelation. he said the crew's weapons were hidden on the u.s. side of the border. two of the weapons found at the scene were linked to the botched fast and furious operation. the teen-ager who allegedly confessed to killing a colorado girl is being charged as an adult now. police say austin fig kidnapped and killed ten-year-old jessica ridgeway as she walked to school earlier this month. prosecutors say he confessed and they have an overwhelming amount of dna evidence against him. he's charged with murder, kidnapping and sexual assault and faces at least 40 years if convicted.

a washington man plans to make history this weekend when he debuts his bionic leg. he put his high-tech limb to the test by climbing 103 stairs in willis tower in chicago he'll have to climb stairs and his leg will move on its own. he lost his leg in 2009. he's been working with researchers to develop this ground breaking leg. those are your headlines. >> steve: that's great. >> eric: where are the answers? it's been over a month since americans were killed in libya and the white house is still silent. senator john mccain demanding justice and he joins us live this hour. >> steve: plus sandy ripping apart communities all across the eastern northeast, but she could pack a political punch as well next tuesday. dick morris is next with what sandy means for the election jenna shared her recipe with sharon,

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>> gretchen: with only six days until the election, sandy packed a political punch. mitt romney and president obama taking a break from the trail. >> steve: with the storm spreading across multiple states what, impact will it have on people voting next tuesday? let's talk to former advisor to president bill clinton, co-author of the book that's coming out, u.n. global governance and the loss of freedom, dick morris who joins us today from detroit. good morning to you. >> i don't know if the black helicopters will get through the storm. >> steve: they were probably grounded for a day or two, but they could be back later today. as we look toward -- >> you guys hear that the u.n. is sending inspectors to monitor our elections in the u.s.? >> steve: yeah. >> we talked about it in the

book. >> steve: down in texas, they said don't bother. >> they're not letting them in. >> steve: no. let's talk about the impact of sandy on next tuesday's voting. there are a number of states that could potentially be still impacted by the lingering effects. i was talking to my sister yesterday who lives in ohio. half of her roof got blown away with the storm as it moved through there and ohio is important. >> yeah. i think that today the storm will have some positive impact for obama because he's going to be moving through the state with governor christie, a symbol of bipartisanship that will help both of them and being presidential and dealing with the storm. that sort of thing always helps an incumbent. but i think on balance, it's going to be a negative for obama for a couple of reasons. one is the democrats rely on early voting. a lot of their vote is sort of machine vote, like nursing homes or like union halls.

they'll put their people in a bus and move them to a polling place and get them out. they rely on early voting for that. and it will be hard to do that in pennsylvania, virginia and a couple of other places. the other thing which is more important really is that whenever conditions are averse, the voters that persevere are the motivated ones, the ones that really care and the polling shows there is a big gap in perseverance and caring and motivation between the republicans and the democrats this year. so i think in pennsylvania and ohio and virginia, the storm will have a dampening effect on the obama turnout, but not on the romney turnout. the other thing is in new york state and new jersey where the electoral votes are not in play, you might have a dramatically lower turnout all around, particularly among democrats. that could cost the president a

point or two in the popular vote. it has a huge bearing on how he's perceived. there are a couple of house seats to the republicans. >> gretchen: that's an interesting analysis. before i let you go, can you talk about the fact that the election might be postponed? could that ever happen as a result of this? >> it would require an act of congress, i'm told. i haven't read the section of the constitution. the election date is actually in the constitution, so i'm not quite sure how that could be changed. but i don't see a postponement. if the storm were approaching now and it hit on monday or tuesday, then you would have. but simply for the aftermath, i don't see that. >> steve: they did postpone the election here in new york city on 9-11, 2001. >> but that was a primary and that was controlled by the state and not specified in any constitution. >> steve: dick morris joining us today from michigan. thank you very much.

>> thank you. >> gretchen: natural disasters hit, how do you reorganize your finances to pay for the emergency? dave ramsey here to help us all with that next. >> steve: they tried to sneak in the united states. look what happened. years ago, my doctor told me to take a centrum silver multivitamin every day. i told him, sure. can't hurt, right? then i heard this news about a multivitamin study looking at long-term health benefits for men over 50. the one they used in that study... centrum silver. that's what i take. my doctor! he knows his stuff. [ male announcer ] centrum. the most recommended. most preferred. most studied. centrum, always your most complete. ♪ can't tell them apart, try as you might ♪ ♪ but a wise man once said that the secret to life ♪

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>> steve: time for news bit numbers on this wednesday. 900 miles. that was the incredible width of hurricane sandy. the super storm left an estimated $20 billion worth of damage, at least 55 people dead. 16,271. that's how many flights were canceled because of the hurricane. that number expected to rise again today as airports slowly open with limited service. finally, 8.2 million. that's how many people in 21 states are waking up in the dark this morning. power is not expected for days,

if not weeks. >> eric: thank you. speaking of numbers, $20 billion, that's the early estimate in property damages from hurricane sandy as millions of americans begin to pick up the pieces following the storm. what if you're affected and plan to pay for your recovery? here to help us is personal finance expert, mr. dave ramsey. you have a few tips for people who were either affected or in the future may be affected. >> we do. we've been through a lot of personal storms and a lot of us have been through natural disasters. the first thing you do is you just stop and you count your blessings. something this traumatic does that. it says you look at the things that are really, really important to you, your family, your health and you look around and when you got those things, then you know you can rebuild. the second thing is you dive in you and make sure necessities are taken care of, of course. your food, shelter, clothing, those are kind of obvious. then the thing that sometimes people don't remember to do and it's a little further in the

aftermath, is stop and really reflect, what did you learn from this? did we have a good emergency fund in place? did we have our right kinds of insurance in place? sadly, you learn the hard way sometimes in these situations. then, of course, what we do as americans, we're tough people, with god's help we begin to rebuild is the last thing. >> eric: dave, we've couple e-mails, people from new jersey and new york area. let me read them to you. let's start with eve in new jersey. the restaurant that i worked at sustained devastating damage from sandy. how can i stay on top of my bills while my boss gets things back up and running? >> first thing is check with the restaurant and somebody's got to be putting stuff back together and who better to do that than the team that originally worked there. they know where the dishes go and see if they won't hire you as part of the rebuild. you won't be waiting tables or whatever you were doing, but you might get employment there. they will need help. there needs to be manpower on the ground. if not, you'll have to look for other work while this restaurant

is being put back together. >> eric: another one, william in new york, he says the entire first floor of our home was flooded during sandy. we have homeowners insurance, but we're still not sure we're covered for the damages. right now we're dealing with a hefty mortgage payment and other outstanding debts. how should we prioritize our bills? kind of important. a lot of people have to find out if they have water damage or wind damage, right? >> absolutely. if you didn't have flood insurance, the folks learned in katrina that the courts upheld that even though it was caused bay hurricane, it's a flood. it doesn't feel morally right, but that's what's been upheld. wind damage is one thing, flood damage is another under your coverage. you back up and do a necessities first. take care of food, shelter, clothing, transportation, and utilities. so you take care of your basic needs out of your bills first, and then you work on the rest of it and the rest of it's just a monopoly game you're behind in with a lot of emotion tied to it. >> eric: we got to leave it there. always great advice.

>> thanks, eric. >> eric: town already destroyed by sandy is now on fire and the flames are shooting out of the sand. the latest on this story is next. then senator john mccain's making news. he says either the president is engaged in a massive cover-up or he's not qualified to be the commander in chief. mccain here next to explain. endless shrimp is our most popular promotion at red lobster. the's so many choices, the guests lovet! [ male announcer ] don't miss endless shrimp, just $14.99! try as much as y like, anyway you like. like new teriyaki grilled shrimp. offer ends soon! my name is angela trapp, and i sea food differently. fire bad! just have to fire roast these tomatoes. this is going to give you a head start on your dinner. that seems easier [ female announcer ] new progresso recipe starters. five delicious cooking sauces

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>> gretchen: fox news alert. brand-new video out of brick township, new jersey. this is an already devastated beach town between seaside heights and point pleasant. a gas main has burst underground. homes are not occupied. you can see some of the flames are coming right out of the sand. right now it's not accessible by land because the local bridge was wiped out in the storm. firefighters are waiting for the gas company to turn off the gas. monster storm sandy on the move and packing a punch. maria molina live in our weather

center with a look at where it's headed now. good morning. >> good morning. you know what? sandy nowhere near the atlantic ocean. sandy making its presence felt in chicago. sending waves in lake michigan to heights of 20 feet. the super storm also bringing high winds and flooding and there is currently a flood warning in effect through this afternoon across the coast of illinois and indiana and people are being urged to avoid the coast line. we're still going to continue to see those strong winds across portions of the great lakes. gusting over 20 miles per hour across cleveland, detroit, even across chicago. you can see it exceed 30 miles per hour at times. so keep that in mind today. another aspect of sandy was a hurricane and it also produced snowfall in the western end of it, bringing very cold temperatures, strong winds and significant snowfall, possibly break some records out here. portions of maryland, west virginia, north carolina, virginia, and tenne than 20 inc. we're already going to report more than 30 inches of snow

across portions of the state of west virginia. so we'll keep you posted on that. blizzard warnings have expired, being replaced by winter storm warnings. we're continuing to see the snow falling across west virginia and even across southwestern portions of the state of pennsylvania. also look at more lingering showers across portions of new england. heavier downpours in eastern portion of maine and that is where we have flood advisories out there. keep that in mind. otherwise snow still coming down. gretchen? >> steve: thank you very much. >> eric: thank you. the jersey shore, one of the hardest hit areas, sand washed over several coastal towns, burying them under water. millions are in the dark this morning. many saying they will start to rebuild. jennifer davis joining us live from forteskuu. ho are people coping? >> good morning. this is a very small community, really a fisherman's paradise on the southern coast of new jersey. it sits on the delaware bay. they went door to door asking people to evacuate and we're

told not a lot of folks did. those who stuck around, this is what they had to contend with. the houses really tell the story about the force of the water here coming off of the bay. it swept homes off their foundation. it viewed debris everywhere. power poles are knocked down. roads are muddy. there is an incredible amount of damage here. fire officials say when they came back to check on people who did not evacuate, they had to use front loaders to get into the community and there was four feet of water in this area. so this is the type of scene that is repeated up and down the coast of new jersey. these are the kind of scenes that the president will see as he tours later today. important to keep in mind, the children, too, who normally would be trick or treating from house to house. but with all of this debris and four by fours and nails, it's not going to be safe for them to do so. a number of communities have pushed their trick or treating hours off to the weekend. back to you. >> eric: thank you. >> steve: it looks like a tornado went through. those houses picked up off their foundation. 25 minutes before the top of the

hour. now other headlines. six days left until election day. republican congresswoman michelle bachmann and jim graves finally facing off in their first debate and the candidates did not waste time getting in each other's faces. >> jim gray's ad about 50% to your tax bill, that's about what you'd be looking at. >> again, michelle doesn't say what she's for. she says what she's against. >> steve: congresswoman bachman is seeking her fourth term in the house of representatives. >> gretchen: everyone knows his name. ♪ -- lollipop. >> how does the song end? >> i don't know. it keeps going 'til one of us drops. ♪ . >> gretchen: sad news this morning, george went has been hospitalized after having chest

pains. norm was supposed to play oscar madison in a chicago production of "the odd couple," but dropped out, but is expected to make a full recovery. >> eric: can you imagine the border patrol agent's reaction when they came across this? two would be smugglers attempt to go get into arizona in a road block, their jeep propped up on a makeshift ramp on this fence. it didn't get far u about the suspects did. they quickly escaped back into mexico. >> steve: she was just trying to save the ducks. instead a pennsylvania woman nearly drowned drowned and got . she was reportedly drunk and decided to jump into a raging creek to help rescue some ducks because she was worried the ducks would die or drown during the storm. the four-year-old daughter started to follow her, but luckily was grabbed by a neighbor, then the woman got stuck in neck high water. it took eight firefighters to rescue her. her blood alcohol level was twice the legal limit. she's facing several charges which she apparently cannot

duck. >> gretchen: i get it. breaking news on libya overnight. he was caught on camera, detained in turkey after the attack on benghazi. now he's been identified as being present at the attack using images from internal surveillance video recorded while this attack actually happened. >> eric: this comes as lawmakers continue to press the white house about what really happened back on september 11. joining us news, arizona senator john mccain. senator, thanks. as we go further, we keep hearing one drone, then there were two drones videotaping. now we have security tape. is there any question in your mind that the white house -- not intel, but the white house had knowledge about what was going on on september 11? >> well, i don't know. they should have. by the way, could i say that our hearts and prayers are with those who you have just been depicting and been going through such a terrible trial as a result of this storm.

but i've been traveling all over the country, obviously on behalf of mitt romney and our candidates and i can tell you, our veterans are angry. they're angry and they no longer trust the commander in chief because this debauchle has been not only what happened is infuriated them, but all of this cover-up. you know, right after the raid on bin laden, within 24 hours, we practically knew every detail, some details we never should have been told. now it's seven weeks and we still have not had the kind of information -- the american people have not had the kind of information that is necessary. one of our veterans, i said, this could be as bad as watergate and one of our veterans said yeah, but nobody died in watergate. four brave americans. three of them veterans. obviously there has been a delay, unacceptable stories and

probably the worst is this continued for days and days narrative that it was a spontaneous demonstration caused by a hateful video. we know that's not true. why did the president keep saying that day after day, send out his u.n. ambassador? american people deserve answers and it's been seven weeks now and we haven't had answers. there is a reason for that. >> steve: david ignatius, op ed writer at the "washington post" which leans to the left wrote that we need a detailed unclassified time line even in the final week of the campaign. that would be a good idea. to be clear, you say this president has either committed a massive cover-up or is not qualified to be commander in chief. those are both bad! >> well, maybe a combination of both. but when you look at the warnings, the two attacks on our consulate, the warnings by our

ambassador, chris stevens, the last message he wrote before he was murdered was talking about the security requirements that were necessary. why didn't the president of the united states know with it? maybe it was one of the briefings that he didn't attend. but the point is the president should have known about it, action should have been taken. then during an obviously there is information that the c.i.a. people were ordered to stand down three times and then afterwards, of course, that's really where i think the people are infuriated. to go out and say something that was totally false, totally false. there was no mob. there was no demonstration. and these surveillance information that you talk about both from the drone and they got them from the consulate, they're now classified as top secret. we've asked for those. congress has a right to know. the american people have a right to know. >> gretchen: they do. but unfortunately, they may not know 'til november 15 when the hearings start and that is ten days after the election. senator john mccain --

>> i can just tell you, our veterans are infuriated. >> gretchen: well, a lot of answers still unknown. senator john mccain, thanks for your time today. >> thank you. >> gretchen: straight ahead, two brand-new ads from the obama and romney campaigns put to the test. when is doing a better job of capturing independent voters? frank luntz is here live. >> eric: then we showed think photo yesterday. the front of a building ripped right off. up next, the man who manages the restaurant inside. a hybrid? most are just no fun to drive. now, here's one that will make you feel alive. meet the five-passenger ford c-max hybrid. c-max says ha. c-max says wheeee. which is what you get, don't you see? cause c-max has lots more horsepower than prius v,

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from point pleasant, emergency until. what's the latest? >> good morning to you and good morning, everyone. president obama, along with new jersey governor chris christie, will be touring parts of the jersey shore and devastation is immense and widespread. this morning we're in point pleasant beach, new jersey, this is an amazing scene. if you're familiar with this part of the jersey shore t looks nothing like it usually looks. take a look. you can see these traffic lights are all out. the force of the storm actually severed that one in half. what you see as you go through this area is mounds and mounds of sand. you can see mounds lining this street, that street is flooded. if we flip here a bit, this mound is about twice my height. what happened here during the storm was that sandy took the sand from the beach and just threw it inland here and now dozens of front end loaders have been gathering it up and pushing it to the side of the road so ultimately it can be shipped out of here. but governor christie says this

will take a long time to get it where it needs to be but new jersey will come back. that's the latest from point pleasant beach, robert moses. back to you. >> eric: thank you. gretch be, over to you. hurricane sandy earning her name, sandy. >> gretchen: no kidding. thanks so much. hurricane sandy leaving behind a path of death and destruction, especially in new york city. take a look at this incredible picture. an entire facade of an apartment building ripped right down during the storm. the debris crashing in front of the mussel maker grill, the restaurant beneath the apartments. ben ross is the franchise development manager for the restaurant and joins us live this. >> no good morning. >> good morning. >> gretchen: that's an amazing picture. looks like a doll house that just stripped the facade right off. what happened? >> it's a tragedy. so no one knows why it happened and exactly what happened yet, but obviously you can tell from the picture the brick facade from the top part where there were apartments fell down to below in front of our restaurant.

the restaurant is still completely secure. we just can't get in. >> gretchen: the facade was actually all bricks? >> yeah, it was brick. >> gretchen: because i would that i if it had been plywood or something like that, that it would have come off a lot easier. but brick? >> yeah. i don't know what was behind it or anything like that. but it had fallen down. it's right there. >> gretchen: luckily the restaurant had already been closed, right? , yes. the restaurant was closed. the manager had it secured by 5:00 o'clock on sunday. it was completely closed. no one was there. but we ended up getting a call from them that the incident happened. obviously it's gotten a lot of coverage. >> gretchen: other people had to be evacuated who lived nearby. firefighters, some injured, trying to get to this scene. i know you have not had a chance to get there, right? >> right. for exactly that reason. we want the firefighters and the ems to be able to do what they need to do, get there, keep everything secure with the storm. i know i was personally unable to even get into the city or back into jersey. i was stuck in pennsylvania.

so for the safety of our customers and the employees, we've kept everything -- let the firefighters do what they have to do to keep it secure. once everything -- we're given the go ahead to see what we can do, we'll do that. >> gretchen: for the fans of the muscle maker grill, when do you expect to be reopened in the chelsea neighborhood? >> that's a good question. unfortunately, we're not total leisure yet. but we're thankful for the fans for all their support on twitter, facebook, all of that. it's been great. we definitely want to get it open as soon as we can and get back right away. >> gretchen: thanks for coming in. >> thanks. >> gretchen: coming up next, mitt romney and president obama releasing two new ads. but will they have an effect on you, the voter? frank luntz is here with his dial technology. that's next. first on this day in history in 1964, "baby love" by the supremes was the number one song [ male announcer ] when was the last time something made your jaw drop?

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>> steve: six days left until the presidential election and both candidates are continuing to use the power of political tv ads to reach out to viewers in a number of states. which ones are working? frank luntz tested two of the latest political ads. he's here to tell us how they are doing with swing voters. in this case, swing voters in florida. >> yes. florida is an important state. mitt romney has been moving further and further ahead of barak obama in most of the polling. we've got one of the best ads of the campaign, mitt romney specifically goes out and makes a direct appeal to independent voters and it works. let's take a look. >> we have to work on a collaborative basis. look, the reason i'm in this race is there are people that are really hurting today in this

country. we face this deficit could crush the future generations and republicans and democrats both love america, but we need to have leadership. leadership in washington that will actually bring people together and get the job done and could not care less if it's a republican or a democrat. i've done it before. i'll do it again. i'm mitt romney. and i approve this message. >> steve: look at that. you got a couple of roman candles there. straight up. >> those are undecided voters and that is the strongest ad that mitt romney has created over the past 30 days. >> steve: because of the bipartisanship thing? >> and getting things done. the idea that you can work together with democrats. how can barak obama claim that he can work with congress when over the last year he's demonized congress? >> steve: sure. >> he also made an attempt at the same type of undecided voters. he tried to use foreign policy as his issue. did not work as well. his is more of an attack on mitt romney. let's take a look. >> i'm barak obama and i approve this message. >> wreckless, amateurish. that's when news media and fellow republicans called mitt

romney's gaffe filled july tour of england, israel and poland. when our u.s. diplomats were attacked, the "new york times" said romney's knee jerk response showed a lack of presidential character. republican experts said romney's remarks were the worst possible reaction to what happened. if this is how he handles the world now, just think what mitt romney might do as president. >> so negative. so negative. that's not what voters want to hear. the amazing thin is that barak obama attacks mitt romney on of all things, libya? the obama campaign has been the most negative campaign over the last three weeks of any campaign in modern history. compare and contrast that with 2008 when he was the most positive. it's one of the reasons why his favorability ratings have gone down and one of the reasons why mitt romney in most national polls has a small lead. >> steve: mitt romney is resuming the campaign today and the president of the united states is going to jet over to new jersey to walk around and look at the devastation with chris christie. >> which takes the most

important anti-obama surrogate off the map for the next seven days. you want to see an election impact of this? that does it. chris christie has done an amazing job. by the way, for those viewers at home, if you want to participate in one of those focus group, go to luntzglobeal.com. we still have two more sessions we're going to do between now and election day. >> steve: wind up on tv. and get to meet frank luntz. >> and get to get yelled at. >> steve: there you go. all right. frank luntz, thank you very much for joining us. meanwhile, scary story developing now. is there a sniper on the loose? somebody randomly shooting at passing cars. we'll have details on that at the top of the hour. the stock exchange opens today for the first time all week. we are live there with details. follow the wings.

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>> gretchen: good morning, everyone. today is wednesday, october 31, 2012. i'm gretchen carlson. thanks for sharing your time with us today. the incredible strength of hurricane sandy all caught on camera. watch this. amazing scenes like that up and down the east coast. live team coverage moments away. >> steve: imagine if the tree was heading toward the camera. meanwhile, insult to injury a town devastated by sandy, now on fire. the names are shooting up through the sand. what's causing that? we've got some ideas. >> eric: and after a brief break from the campaign trail, the candidates are back at it today. where are they now and what are they saying? live from the white house, "fox & friends" starts right now.

>> gretchen: extreme weather alert to start the show for the final hour today. check out that amazing video. all devastation that the storm has left behind, unimaginable. this is brand-new video of a massive tree uprooting as the super storm hit on long island, new york. cities up and down the east coast must begin the grueling recovery. once in a lifetime super storm killing as many as 55 men, women and children and first responders. this morning estimates of the physical damage, $20 billion and counting. fire burning right now in new jersey, gas main is on fire under the sand in brick township. the recovery will have to wait in had some areas hit with major power outages. more than 8 million people are in the dark and aren't expected to get power back for days, maybe weeks. the hardest hit states, new jersey, new york, and pennsylvania. >> eric: our team coverage begins with peter doocy live in delaware. peter, the latest?

>> eric, very sad to report, as gretchen said, at least 55 people have been killed by sandy and sandy also knocked out the power to millions of americans, 8 1/2 million americans at the peak. many of them are still without power. they have no lights and they have no heat and that is going to make for a very tough final day in october because it is very cold here in the east this morning. now, commuting is complicated today as well. the new york city subway system has 468 stations and 600-plus miles of track and it will remain closed for at least a few more days because there is a lot of water down there in those tunnels where it is not supposed to be. we have no idea when la guardia airport and new york or newark airport and new jersey is going to open back up. jfk airport in new york might start some takeoffs and landings today, just like philadelphia and boston and washington did yesterday. very slowly. really air travelers everywhere are hoping for a better day than

yesterday when there were 18,000 cannulations. but canceled flights can be fixed. many, many homes in the east cannot be, including more than 100 in breezy point, new york, that were destroyed by a fire. sandy made a $20 billion mess at least. that's just the damage. experts are saying to tack on at least 15 to 30 million more in loss business. but they're hoping that those big numbers can be offset by the cost of reconstruction and repair. back to you. >> steve: thank you for the live report. speak of business and losing money, i was talking to somebody who runs a restaurant a couple blocks from where we're sitting now. last night, number one, they're running out of food because they haven't had deliveries. plus the people who live in the outer areas can't get in. she spent four hours driving with a taxi to three different burrows to pick up the waiters. >> eric: stock exchange was closed for two days. that's lot of business, lot of economic activity lost by nome the new york metro area, the whole country.

>> steve: could they possibly pump the tunnels in four or five days? i doubt it. super storm sandy causing blizzard conditions for the past two days in west virginia. right now parts of that state covered with three feet of snow. it would be great if you wanted to ski. but unfortunately, about 300,000 people don't have power. they just want to be warm. kelly wright is amid the snow drifts in elkins, west virginia, where a blizzard warning still in effect. kelly? >> yeah, you're absolutely right, steve. here in elkins, west virginia, there are 14,000 people without power right now. elkins is the seat, by the way, of randolph county. other counties are experiencing loss of power. the governor of the state, says part of the problem restoring power, they have to have -- a loft mountainous ranges here. some elevations as high as 3,200 feet or hire. they have to fly above to get a

look at transformers, look at the downed power lines before they can send their crews in to actually repair the damage. lot of road work has been going on here. let me give you an example. the road crews have been very diligent in plowing this area. one person was talking to our photographer, john, earlier. he was plowing some of this. he says he's never seen the snow this wet. it's pretty wet. i can make a snowball just picking it up. that's what people have to contend with out here. so many of the people who are going to work are actually walking out here in the street. for those who are watching and perhaps those who are coming through this area, make sure you warn them to walk with bright colored clothing on so people can see when they're driving. we'll keep you updated on what's happening here. schools are out. state employees have been going back to work, except for those who are in conditions where they're without power. steve? >> steve: it's just a mess out there. west virginia, kelly, thank you.

>> gretchen: and in the midst of all of this, we only have six days until america heads to the ballot box for the presidential election. mitt romney and president obama temporarily suspending their campaigns in the wake of this storm. but at least one will be back on the trail today. mike emmanuel at the white house for us. what can you tell us? >> gretchen, the president is going to stick to his job of the moment, which is surveying this disaster. he's going to head up to the garden state, the great state of new jersey, to see devastation from hurricane sandy. he's going to join new jersey governor chris christie, the republican, who has often been a critic of the president, but so far in this disaster, the republican governor of new jersey has heaped praise on the president. >> the president has been all over this. he deserves great credit. i've been on the phone with him, like i said yesterday, personally three times. he gave me his number at the white house, told me to call him if i needed anything. and he absolutely means it. it's been very good. it's been very good working with

the president and his administration have been coordinating with us. it's been wonderful. >> on governor christie's agenda for this visit, he says he wants to talk to the president about getting the army corps of engineers into new jersey to figure out how to better rebuild the jersey shore. the president is expected to return to full-time campaigning tomorrow. gretchen? >> gretchen: thanks. a lot of people will wonder what about the republican ticket? paul ryan and mitt romney, where are they going to be? >> mitt romney is going to florida. he's going to make three stops with former governor jeb bush, including jacksonville, miami, and also tampa bay. yesterday he was in the dayton, ohio, area. turned a rally into a relief event for hurricane victims. paul ryan will make three stops in wisconsin. wisconsin has not been a battle ground in years past, but obviously with ryan on the ticket, polls showing a close race. republicans are hoping to make it a battle ground that perhaps they can win this time around. congressman ryan will make three stops in his home state.

>> gretchen: mike emmanuel live at the white house, thank you very much. >> steve: as peter said a moment ago issues millions of americans are without power right now. we're just six days away from the big election and take a look. this depicts the northeast. the states in yellow, if you're watching your tv, have between zero and half a million cases of the power outage. then you look at the red states and those include new york and pennsylvania and connecticut and new jersey. more than a million. that could be problematic on election day. >> eric: could be problematic leading up to election day. ohio's early voting may experience more and more power outages. here is the thing, it's not whether or not you can vote. i'm sure they'll have power at the polling places. >> gretchen: what about the electronics? >> eric: you can do paper ballots. here is the point, if you're sitting in your home right now and you don't have power, are you going to be inspired or even want to get into a car and go vote? no. what you're thinking about right now is getting power back to

your home. so a lot of the early voting, democrats typically are the early voters. the republicans are the ones who go to the polling place on election day. >> gretchen: i agree with that. however, if you've got kids running around and nothing to do and they're not going to school, you may want to get out and vote. [ laughter ] just saying from a mom's perspective. >> steve: the larger issue, remember, we had power out twice last year in the new york city area for a week and a week. and at that time we were talking on this program about how the power grid should be updated. it's 50, 60 years old. had they taken the stimulus money that they blew on a bunch of things that were not shovel ready and actually got a shovel out and buried the power cables, we wouldn't be in the mess. forget about there is going to be isolated incidents of power out, but think about all the productivity that is lost. think about all the people who are going to lose all the food in their refrigerators. people are going to catch pneumonia because it's freezing

all over the place. that's just bad. >> eric: of all the infrastructure that this country needs, bridge, tunnels, roadways, absolutely the most pressing. >> steve: or the solyndra money. take the solyndra money and things they did on green energy. let's use it on wire energy to make sure the lights don't go out every time the wind blows really hard.retchen: topic of dn in the town that i live in. now the rest of your headlines and search for a shooter. police in michigan look for a gunman who is shooting randomly at passing cars. in response, they're stopping cars along roads and freeways that appear to be involved in suspicious activity. witnesses describe the suspect's car as irritate a dark 1998 oldsmobile alero or 1998 toyota camry. he has fired at 22 people so far. but nobody has been killed. they're considered crucial to afghanistan's security and stability. moments ago, learned afghanistan will hold presidential elections on april 5, 2014. the last election held in 2009

was criticized over allegations of voter fraud. current president karzai now allowed to run again because of term limits. there were concerns he'd try to delay the election. justice in the murder of border patrol agent brian terry. border bandit pleading guilty to first-degree murder. he admitted being part of a group from sinoloa. prosecutors are not going to seek the death penalty. they say because he pled guilty. he's also making a shocking revelation. he says the crew's weapons were hidden for them on the u.s. side of the border. two of the weapons found at the scene were linked to the botched fast and furious operation. nine men in florida busted for betting on pee wee football. the massive gambling ring involved several team coaches with extensive criminal records. the investigation started after parents were spotted exchanging cash in the stands at games. police say the coaches would meet before the games, set the point spread, and some of the wagers, this is pee wee

football -- set at $100,000. those are your headlines. who has that kind of dough? >> eric: you have a gambling problem if you're betting 100 grand on pee wee football games. >> steve: take a dive, junior! on this wednesday, al gore has all the answers, as you know. he knows exactly why he says, sandy, the super storm has been to devastating. global warming. more from the former vice president as we roll on. >> eric: sandy is just left, but the damage behind could be some of the most expensive in america's history. how will this affect the u.s. economy? peter johnson, jr. answers. he's here next. >> gretchen: live pictures right there. jersey shore. how does it work? you just he to eat it as part of your heart healthy diet. step 1. eat the soup. all those veggies and beans, that's what may help lower your cholesterol and -- well that's easy [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup.

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>> steve: the widespread devastation of hurricane, super storm sandy, enough to make it one of the most ex opinionsive storms ever to hit the united states.

initial estimates expect the damage to exceed at least $20 billion. so what kind of affect will that east coast destruction have on the national economy? peter johnson, jr. joins us live. what do you think? >> i'm afraid it's going to have a more devastating effect than any of the numbers are talking about. i hate giving that bad news. they're talk being 20 to $30 billion in terms of property damage and another $30 billion in terms of lost business. we're not taking into account devastation to the infrastructure of the new york city, new jersey metropolitan area, which is really unprecedented. it doesn't limit or say less about what other people have suffered, when you suffer something like this, it's really terrible. but when you have the subway systems, when you have metro north, when you have long island railroad, when you have certain amtrak tracks deeply affected and we don't know how long they're going to be back on track, when power is out to the tip of manhattan and affects the financial district, but for the stock exchange, for example, our business is out this week.

our law firm is out. we're working on people's e-mails and texts and trying to service clients. but that's what thousands of businesses are facing in manhattan. it's kind of like post-9-11 in a lot of respects. the infrastructure is not really insured. so how do we pay for that? we pay for that with higher deficits, higher taxes, higher fares, more indebtedness in terms of bond debt where we say now we have to fix this. so it's a very devastating and continuingly devastating effect on our economy and there is one prediction that the gdp for this quarter which went up to 2% for the last quarter, you know a well, eric, may dip .5 or .6 as a result of what's affected the northeast. so it's a devastating hit and it's affecting a lot of people here in new york in ways that they never thought in new jersey

and connecticut and all the atlanta coastal states in ways that they never thought that they would be affected. >> gretchen: let's take a look at the estimated insured losses of former storms. katrina, which was deemed to be the biggest disaster in recent time in 2005, that was 46.6 billion. andrew in '92, 22.9 billion. i'm not sure that's adjusted for current dollars. ike, 2008, 13.1 billion. wilma, charlie, et cetera. then you have sandy down there estimated, i think that's -- i'm not sure that's accurate. the estimation now is 20 billion. how do we even know what it would be? >> high. but let me jump on this before we go. this is really important. if you suffered a loss, get to your insurance company right away. you may be first facing a hurricane deductible or straight deductible. sometimes a hurricane deductible based on the category of the hurricane, is 1 to 5% of your actual loss. document what's happened already. if you need to do temporary repairs, do them.

don't do permanent repairs. get with the adjustors. if you need a public adjustor, do it. fight hard for your dollars. the insurance companies want to pay what's fair. they really do. >> gretchen: what about if it's not really a hurricane? because remember, they deemed it not a hurricane when it came into new jersey, new york, pennsylvania, massachusetts -- >> there was litigation on katrina and other issues and if it's a flood, unless you are part of the nfip, national flood insurance program, you won't have coverage. if you have comprehensive coverage on automobile and it's wrecked by a tree or by water damage, you probably do have coverage. so look hard at your coverage. get to your broker. get out quickly. meet with the adjustors who will be in the area. but get on it now. document, talk. do what you need to do to be safe and a lot of policies, if you need to get out of your home, they will pay for a hotel or motel to make sure that you and your family are safe. devastating hit for a lot of us here and our prayers are with

everybody here that have suffered. but this will be something that we snead to talk about going forward and how we stop this in the future, how power went out in lower manhattan. that's a question that i'm sure there will be investigations about. >> steve: no kidding. thank you. straight ahead, less than a week until election day and if mitt romney wants to be the next president, he's going to probably have to win florida. what does that have to do -- what does testify do to win? that man right there, connie mac, who is joining mitt romney later today, joins us first. >> eric: sandy's wrath, more incredible images coming up. how can you get back pain relief that lasts up to 16 hours?

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>> gretchen: 24 minutes after the top of the hour. quick headlines. look at the severe flooding that took over new york subway stations. officials don't know how long it will take to pump out all of the water. once it's dry, they'll have to fix any electrical damage from the storm and the salt water. it could take several days for service to restart, maybe weeks. and nope, this isn't the atlantic ocean. that's lake michigan in chicago. waves reaching heights of 20 feet during the storm. steve? >> steve: that's something. mitt romney campaigning today in florida where he holds a razor thin lead in the polls among likely voters. with only six days left, what will it take to hold this key battle ground state? make sure it turns red, florida congressman connie mac is currently running his own race for u.s. senate. let's talk to him. he joins us now from tampa. good morning to you,

congressman. >> good morning. it's great to be with you. >> steve: great to have you. so after a couple of days that mr. romney has for the most part taken off due to the circumstances of the big storm here in the northeast, it's game on again today. he's going to be traveling with you and also former governor bush and marco rubio and what is his message to florida? >> i think his message is the same one he's been talking about for a long time. that's jobs and the economy and how to get this country moving again. there are a lot of people down here in florida who are hurting. their homes are upside down and their loans, they can't find work. there is 820,000 floridans out of work, more who have stopped looking for work. so it's about how to get job creators back into the game of creating jobs. you do that by lower taxes, lower regulations, and putting our faith and trust back into the people of the state of florida and this country instead of more and more government. that's exactly what mitt romney has been talking about.

if i could real quick, i want to let everyone know that here in florida, our hearts and prayers and thoughts go out for those people who have suffered so much in the northeast. we know what these storms can do. there are people who are hurting in the northeast and we need to do everything we can to let them know that we're going to be there for them and that they're going to be able to survive this when you lose your home to a fire, flood, people have lost their lives. it's really a devastating storm. i hope that everybody is safe and does well. >> steve: indeed. and no place in the country do they know more about the impacts of gigantic hurricanes than a lot of the people who live there in florida. congressman, thank you very much. if you would, tell us a little bit about regarding early voting. a lot of people in florida get absentee ballot sos they can vote in advance of next tuesday. how has the absentee ballots

been going regarding the number of republicans and democrats who requested them preelection? >> you know, absentee ballot voting has been way up this election cycle. i think of those that are returned, 44% or 45% are republican. 39 are democrat. we have a lead when it comes to the absentee ballots. people are excited. i've been traveling around the state in my own campaign and people are excited. they want to get out and they want to participate in this election. there are many republicans, independents and democrats who aren't satisfied with the direction that we've been going in in the last four years. they want a change. they want to go in a different direction. they want someone to believe in them and so they're doing that with their vote. >> steve: that's one of the reasons that you and mitt romney are going to hit the road today to try to energize people to make sure that they get out and vote on tuesday. connie mac running for u.s. senate in florida, thank you very much. >> thank you for having me. >> steve: it's 27 minutes after the top of the hour on this

wednesday. navy seals upset over what happened in benghazi, libya, when our ambassador and others were murdered. that outrage being censored by facebook. we'll tell you about it. after historic shut down, wall street is back to business today. right? >> back to business today. limited phone capabilities in that building, limited internet capabilities. but the new york stock exchange is going to open one hour from now. i'll have the latest over break. there's a better way... v8 v-fusion. vegetable nutrition they need, fruit taste they love. could've had a v8. or...try kids boxes!

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>> eric: fox business alert. for the first time all week, wall street is about to open and get back to business. the stock exchange shut down for two days, the longest weather-related closure since 1888. lauren of the "fox business" network live on wall street. what are they expecting? a big robust business day? >> good morning. it's unprecedented what's going on. the area is desolate. no traffic lights, no electricity. the only thing going on down here on wall street is the new york stock exchange running on two back up generators. limited phones.

but they say trading will happen. in an hour from now. 90% of the traders are showing up. how are they getting here? the subways are flooded, the train systems are down. some of the tunnels are down. they're driving in. they're getting these new york stock exchange parking passes and they're showing up to show the world that yeah, we're resilient and we've got to get back to business after being shut down for two days. the opening is expected to be very light today. not much volume. they do expect to pick up throughout the day. you got to remember, it's the end of the months, it's halloween, october 31. lots of traders and clients want to close out their books and make changes and stuff. so it will be busy. and it's going to be definitely a trying day, but we feel encouraged that this is happening. the area certainly needs it. back to you. >> steve: are you telling us that in new york city where it can cost $75 a day to park in manhattan, all people need to park in lower manhattan is that xerox thing with the police logo on it? >> if you come to me, i'll give it to you for free.

exactly. that's all you need today. >> gretchen: lauren -- one little silver lining in a big huge mess. lauren, thanks for that update. >> steve: all right. and the buses are free. >> eric: i have a hunch there will be a big line day. they have a couple of days to make up for. i know it's the last day of the month. most of the volume is done electronically anyway. >> steve: stand by. we've got headlines on this wednesday. former democrat vice president al gore has blamed the monster storm, sandy on climate change. gore posting on his web site that the storm is, quote, a disturbing sign of things to come. mr. gore went on to say, pollution is helping create storms that are getting even more energetic and powerful. meanwhile, democratic new york governor andrew cuomo whose state was slammed by sandy also blames climate change for the big sandy storm.

>> gretchen: imagine the border patrol reaction when they came across this? two would be smugglers attempted to get into arizona hit a road block. their jeep pro propped up on a makeshift ramp on this fence. it didn't get far, but the suspects did. they quickly escaped back to mexico. >> eric: a ramp going up on the other side? >> steve: no clearance for the moving car. >> eric: a jeep. self-defense or all out assault? gene hackman slap add homeless man. the man reportedly was being aggressive with the 82-year-old actor when he insulted his -- then he insulted his wife. the man called police and said hackman beat him up, but he wasn't visibly hurt. cops say hackman acted in self-defense and did not arrest him. >> steve: we've got an amazing animal rescue in the middle of hurricane sandy. it happened in new jersey. a beach goer spotted that deer stuck in the ocean, couldn't get back onto beach such as it was because of a barrier of rocks. the guy still went out to the

water and helped him out. actually a lot of deer down there. >> gretchen: there is still more questions than answers about the benghazi, libya terrorist attack. it comes as we've learned that a tunisian man suspected was identified during the assault. now more. katherine hedge has been leading the charge. good morning to you. >> good morning. we are learning new information about the tunisian national who was arrested in turkey and being held by tunisian authorities in connection with the benghazi attack on 9-11. while there is no known public picture of him, fox news is told that he is among some two dozen individuals on the list of potential suspects who are linked to the attack through intelligence traffic, including intercept. in his case, brag to go a close friend that's involved, as well as surveillance camera video from the compound. fox news is told the nearly two weeks that he has been in custody, the u.s. government has not been given access to independently question him.

earlier on "fox & friends," senator gym was asked whether the administration's overall actions on benghazi showed a cover-up or if the president is not qualified to be commander in chief. >> may be a combination of both. but when you look at the warnings, the two attacks on our consulate, the warnings by our ambassador, chris stevens, the last message he wrote before he was murdered was talking about the security requirements that were necessary. why didn't the president of the united states know about it? maybe it was one of the briefings that he didn't attend. but the point is the president should have known about it. >> fox news learned as early as two days after the attack in benghazi where ambassador stevens and three other americans were killed, the f.b.i. and national counterterrorism center, the nation's threat analysis briefed lawmakers that the evidence supported an al-qaeda or al-qaeda affiliated attack. fox news was told there was no mention of a demonstration nor any significant mom says on that anti-islam video they briefings.

though publicly the day after the briefings on september 14, the white house spokesman suggested terrorism was not part of the intelligence picture. guys, back to you. >> gretchen: all right. >> eric: great work. my vote for pulitzer right there. >> steve: let's talk politics and a little bit regarding the navy seals. there is a navy seal super pac out there called special ops speaks, sos. and one of the guys who runs it put up on their web site on facebook, he linked to their web site and the message was, the navy seals were calling for help in benghazi, what, two, three times, and they were denied. the president of the united states, when it's helpful to him, has highlighted the navy seals when they helped take out osama bin laden. but then when they needed help on september 11, 2012, they were denied. as you can see there in the red letters. >> gretchen: this seal pac says that facebook censored their comments on benghazi.

when they put up the comments, they say that there was then a report that came up that they had violated facebook statement of rights and responsibilities. so they copied the warning and put it back up. they said look, there were a lot of people who wanted to see what they were talking about. i think they had something like 20, 30,000 shares, approximately 24,000 likes and it was read by hundreds of thousands of people, all within the first 24 hours. what do you think about that? let us know. >> steve: yeah. breitbart site writes facebook put the navy seals in time out to shield obama. how low can you go? the breitbart site writes right now. >> gretchen: coming up, election day six days away. will republicans keep their majority in the house? larry sabato has the answer with his crystal ball coming up next. >> eric: then america emerging from the destruction of hurricane sandy. a woman gives birth five weeks early in a makeshift medical center. we mentioned there was no epidural. what are you going to name her?

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♪ oh what a relief it is! ♪ [ male announcer ] try new alka-seltzer plus severe allergy to treat allergy symptoms, plus sinus congestion, and pain. >> steve: got quick headlines on this wednesday morning. it's amazing, he made it out of the water alive. a shark taking a huge chunk out of a surf board and the surfer himself. look at that. you can see the teeth marks. the shark pulled the guy under, but other surfers came to his rescue and pulled him out. the surfer expected to be okay. meanwhile, everybody knows this guy's name. ♪ lollipop ♪ . >> how does this song end? >> i don't know. i think you got to keep going 'til one of us drops. >> steve: sad news, george wind pictured screen left, has been hospitalized after having chest pains. norm, as he was known in "cheers" is expected to make a full recovery.

eric? >> eric: thank you. we're in the home stretch, less than one week until the election and much will be made about what the candidates need to do in the final days to shore up those undecided voters. so what should they do? larry sabato is the professor of political science at the university of virginia. he joins us now. we have a week left. i think we just got note that president obama will resume campaigning, according to aides, in nevada, colorado, wisconsin, tomorrow. is this a smart thing? is this what he should be doing? >> well, look, the storm has served as a circuit breaker on the campaign. it's like we have to restart all over again and the candidates, both of them, have to whip up enthusiasm again among the base. it's amazing how quickly people's attention will turn to something else. i think everybody can do that. everybody knows the election is next tuesday. the stakes are very high. so look, we have to get back to

campaigning. there is no question about it. it's big election. >> eric: what about for mitt romney? he stepped aside. he said, i'm not going to campaign. he even stopped fundraising. said send the money to fema or emergency assistance instead. when is it time for mitt romney to really start bearing down again on the campaign? >> well, like today. maybe ten minutes ago. look, the storm passed. there are terrible problem, yes, in new jersey and new york, and some other places. but that's the responsibility of the federal government. he doesn't hold an official position. his only position is the republican nominee for president. he has to pursue that just as the rest of us are all showing up at our jobs. >> eric: you want to predict what the house of representatives is going to look like after the election? go ahead. >> that's the easy part. i think everybody will agree with that. my house editor actually called the house for the crystal ball last thursday and essentially there is almost no change.

democrats have to pick up 25 seats net to take control of the house. we think they'll get maybe five seats, something like that. in other words, virtually no change of the republicans will ends up in the 230s. they only need 218 to control the house. that's the one piece that i think is firmly in place for next tuesday. >> eric: there are allegedly ten senate seats that might be up for grabs. that would shift the balance of power back to the republicans. what are the odds of that? >> right now the odds favor the democrats. it looks like the democrats are going to hold control of the senate. but if mitt romney ends up winning the presidential contest by a wide margin or a wider margin than maybe even his own people expect him to, then you could have him bring in on tail just enough republicans to get to 50-50, with vice president ryan breaking the tie or maybe even 51-49. i have to say, in looking at the nine or ten, quote, toss-ups or

close races, democrats are probably favored in 51-52 seats. >> eric: very quickly, a couple high profile senate races in indiana and also in missouri. where do you see those two going? >> well, missouri is very likely to go to the democrats incumbent, claire mccaskill because of the controversial payments of todd aiken and the national republicans abandoned todd aiken. and then on the second one, indiana, richard murdoch has for republicans unfortunately created a very close race there. it is no longer a sure thing that republicans will hold on to dick lugar's seat. >> eric: certainly not the other way either. so those are still up for grabs. >> no, it's undecided. we'll see how it flips. but i got to tell you, the republicans are unhappy with the indiana situation. >> eric: we got to leave it there. thank you. >> eric: thank you. >> eric: she we want in labor

five weeks early and in the middle of sandy's fury, but despite dodging trees and not making it to the hospital, this story has a happy ending. mother, father, and newborn baby next. but first, let's check in with bill hemmer for what's coming up. hey, you're back? you made it back. >> yeah. >> eric: what's coming up? >> road warrior. nice to see you. we're awaiting more fallout from sandy. it's difficult to overstate how many people are affected here. death toll now at least 50. the latest today. stock mark reopens in 40 minutes. this was history as well. what they're doing, six days away from the election. join us, martha and i back here in ten minutes. we'll see you at the top of the hour.

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>> gretchen: she went in labor five weeks early as sandy's fury swept across new jersey. a 15 minute ambulance ride turned into nearly a two-hour odyssey. they dodged fallen trees, closed roads, dark hospitals and even their ambulance got stuck in the mud. finally they made it to a makeshift medical shelter where she finally gave birth to a baby boy. joining me live this morning from new jersey, christine and david and their newborn son, liam. good morning. >> good morning. >> gretchen: congratulations, first of all. i am sure you feel much more leaved a couple days later than after the fact. i was just describing your odyssey. to top it off, you were not even near ready to give birth to this boy, right? you were five weeks early? >> i was five weeks early. the due date was december 4. >> gretchen: you started feeling contractions monday afternoon?

>> monday, early morning. that was out of the ordinary. i had been contracting. that was becoming my new norm, to get contraction. but these didn't stop. we lost power about 5:00 o'clock. shortly after, about an hour, we tried finishing eating dinner and they were strong enough that i didn't have much of an appetite. i didn't want to eat. just got progressively worse. i tried everything to relax, to hope they would stop, but they didn't. >> gretchen: yeah. mother nature -- go ahead. called a neighbor to come and stay because you have other children, right? >> we had three children at the home. we had no power. we had a generator going. so while the children were old enough to stay home for a little while by themselves, no doubt we want to do make sure they were safe with the storm. so we had a neighbor come up and stay with them. we called 911. they came. my blood pressure was elevated,

so they wanted to get me going quickly. so they had me running through the grass which was covered in twigs and sticks that had fallen. and got us into the ambulance and our local ambulance attempted to get to princeton medical center, which was where my doctor was waiting for me. but that turned into we had -- there was debris and the ambulance got stuck in the mud. >> gretchen: david, i want to get you in here because i can only imagine, your wife is the actual one who is going to give birth, but you're the awaiting father. you've got kids at home that you're worried about, a massive hurricane coming and now your wife has gone into labor way too early in the middle of this mess. you end up get to go a makeshift sort of a hospital and she gives birth. my goodness, what are you thinking? there is no nicu unit there. the baby is five weeks early.

>> right. exactly. that's what we're worried about the most is the fact that the baby will be born five weeks early and if he has complications, there is no nic doctor there, there is no nic unit to take care of him right away. >> gretchen: luckily -- >> luckily he was born very healthy. >> gretchen: that's just amazing because five weeks early there can be many complications. christine, i know for all the women out there who have given birth, i want to make note of the fact that you did this all without an epidural. >> i did. with my three children i had an epidural. just all the sensations of the birthing process, but i guess i'm stronger than i thought i was. i was able to do it and fortunately he was healthy. no complications at all. all his tests came out perfect. >> gretchen: that's amazing. >> we're very blessed and thankful for that.

>> gretchen: of course. the guys were postulating before the break that maybe you might consider naming the baby sandy? i guess you went with liam. >> no. >> we're sticking with his name, liam alexander. >> gretchen: he's a beautiful name and beautiful child. a story you will never, ever forget. thanks much. have a good rest of the week. >> thank you. >> gretchen: more "fox & friends" two minutes away ah. fire bad! just have to fire roast these tomatoes. this is going to give you a head start on your dinner. that seems easier [ female announcer ] new progresso recipe starters. five delicious cooking sauces you combine with fresh ingredients to make amazing home-cooked meals.

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>> steve: you're look at live pictures from a helicopter of seaside heights, new jersey. that's iconic because that's where that famous amusement park kind of was there at the casino pier. a lot of it is in the water right now. >> gretchen: apparently prod